CNHI
9-15-10 — The Wayne County Middle School 7th and 8th grade teams opened their home and Big South Fork Conference seasons, on Thursday, September 2 against McCreary County. The two games, at Jewell Field, were billed as the H&W Sport Shop Kickoff Classic, kicking off the home portion of the 2010 schedule.
The Cardinal 7th grade squad used touchdown runs by Colton Turpin and Kody Vaughn, plus and improved defensive effort to claim a 14-6 win. Wayne County led the whole way, paced by H&W MVP Dalton Southwood, to improve to 1-2 on the season.
"Far and away the best effort by our 7th grade team of the season. We moved some guys around and I thought everyone played extremely hard. We don't put a big emphasis on winning these games, but try and use our 13 games to gain experience, so to get a win was big. I hope that gives these guys some confidence and momentum the rest of the way," said Cards coach Shannon Hutchinson.
In the nightcap Wayne County's 8th grade battled through a season high 8 penalties, to grab a 14-8 lead at the half, before scoring three straight touchdowns to roll to a 34-16 win.
H&W Sport Shop MVP Kadamian Branham rushed 9 times for 94 yards, scored second half touchdowns on runs of 1, 30 and 45 yards, as the Cards used 34 plays to total 353 yards of offense.
"We played hard, but I didn't think we were very sharp on both sides of the ball. We had too many penalties but we'll learn and go back to work. Kadamian had a huge offensive game, especially in the second half," said Hutchinson.
Quarterback Logan Gardner added 189 rushing yards on 11 attempts, which included scoring runs of 20 and 80 yards. Running back Justin Pennycuff added 3 carries for 19 yards, as six different Cards carried the football to win.
"I think we're gaining some confidence in some spots and continue to improve, but it will take our best effort to win at Pulaski Northern. Defensively we forced four turnovers, but we have to play with more discipline. We gave McCreary four first downs off our mistakes, so that has to improve," said Huthinson.
Nose guard Jared Philpot paced the defense with a game high 7 tackles and recovered a fumble, while Branham and Pennycuff totaled 6 stops each. Kody Vaughn and Gardner contributed 5 tackles each, while Nathan Garner finished with 4 total tackles.
Up next for the squad is a Tuesday night road trip to conference rival Pulaski Northern.